Top 10 Creepiest Songs When Played in Reverse
#10: "Final Scream"
Nipsey Hussle ‘Final Album’ | Bowie Estate Sells Entire Catalog | Heidi Shepherd & Lena Scissorhands
Grim Reaper
British heavy Metal band Grim Reaper achieved an impressive level of commercial success with their 1983 debut, "See You in Hell". Serving as a callback to this album, Reaper's sophomore effort "Fear No Evil" featured a little nod to their mainstream breakthrough. The album's closing track, "Final Scream" features plenty of theatricality right from the opening narration, but the actual end of the song includes a backmasked message that states, quite simply: "See. You. In. Hell." It's the sort of cool ending that feels right at home in the heyday of classic heavy metal.
#9: "Gonna Raise Hell"
The Falling Never Gonna Let You Down
Cheap Trick
"Gonna Raise Hell" by Cheap Trick is nearly ten minutes in length, so trying to single out one Satanic sentence isn't exactly easy, but nevertheless, this urban legend has followed the song for decades. And you know what? Is is there. If you listen just after the four minute mark, the reversed Robin Zander sounds like he's saying, "you know Satan holds the key to the lock." Is it intentional? We're not sure, but it certainly raises some questions about whether or not we should call the Dream Police on these classic rockers.
#8: "Eldorado"
Electric Light Orchestra
There's something to be said about embracing a happy accident. Jeff Lynne of ELO, however, wasn't exactly keen that fans picked up on some unintentional messages on the song "El Dorado." When the song is played backwards, Lynne sounds like he's talking about the Mark of the Beast and an infernal Christ, but this definitely wasn't part of Lynne's master plan. What the band leader did do, however, was include some very intentional messages on songs like "Fire On High," cheekily referencing how "music is reversible, but time is not."
#7: "As Flittermice as Satans Spys"
Top 10 Songs That Are Rarely Played Live
Darkthrone
The message in this song was most definitely intentional. Darkthrone is one of the elder statesmen of Black metal, an extreme subgenre that originated in Norway. In Black metal songs, the lyrics and actual crimes committed by musicians occasionally overlap. "As Flittermice as Satans Spys'' makes no bones about its backmasking when it states, "in the name of God, let the churches burn." This is a direct reference to high profile church burnings that made the genre controversial in the early 90s - leading to prison times for several Black metal artists.
#6: "Dinner at Deviant's Palace"
Cradle of Filth
There's more extreme metal in store for our next pick, although it's not of the Norwegian variety. England's Cradle of Filth is one of the genre's foremost success stories. They’ve courted controversy through their merchandise, with messaging that’s offended religious leaders. The track "Dinner at the Deviant's Palace" also has a religious connection, specifically the Lord’s Prayer spoken in reverse, sometimes recited by Satanists during Black Mass. Of course, this means that if you play it backwards, the prayer isn’t backwards - but in context, it’s somehow even creepier that way!
#5: "Snowblind"
Styx
Hey, did you know that Styx worshipped the devil? Well, the band wasn't aware of this, either...that is, until fans picked up on this little phonetic reversal. We're guessing that '80s rock fans had a lot of free time. They sure seem to have spun their vinyl backwards like this a lot, but we're glad they did, because how else could we know "Snowblind" contained Satanic praise?! It's brief, but there's a small section of the song where Dennis DeYoung sounds like he's saying, "Satan, move through our voice." Again, we doubt Styx did this on purpose, but the band IS named after a river in the Greek underworld, so maybe there is something sinister hiding between the lines...
#4: "Hell Awaits"
Top 10 Hell Songs
Slayer
On the surface, the next entry on our list might seem like a no-brainer. We ARE talking about Slayer, after all, one of the most successful metal bands to use blatant Satanic imagery in their songs. As frontman Tom Araya has mentioned in multiple interviews, this was largely due to youthful enthusiasm and a fascination with horror movies. This explains the backmasking in the band's classic jam "Hell Awaits," which pays homage to Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" with its repeated phrase of "join us." Of course, this doesn't change the fact that "Hell Awaits" is frighteningly intense at any speed, the kind of song that encapsulates heavy metal's dark reputation.
#3: "Better By You, Better Than Me"
Top 10 Songs From The 2010s You Forgot Were Awesome
Judas Priest
There was some real life tragedy behind Judas Priest's cover of the Spooky Tooth song "Better By You, Better Than Me." The band were the defendants in a lawsuit back in 1990 that claimed subliminal messages in their version drove two young men to take their own lives. The prosecution claimed there were backmasked instances of the phrase "do it" buried within the song, but the case against the band was dismissed. Frontman Rob Halford, who took the stand in the case, argued that a message to "buy more records" would be far more productive, and that the phrase "do it" doesn't reference anything specifically, least of all self-destruction.
#2: Stairway to Heaven"
Led Zeppelin
Many of the alleged backwards messages featured in this list have been relatively brief, but Led Zeppelin was never a band to do things in half measures. The band cultivated an aura of mystery behind them, such as guitarist Jimmy Page's fascination with the occult. This almost certainly fed into the rumors of subliminal messages lurking within the band's worldwide hit, "Stairway to Heaven." Page, however, says that he didn't intentionally hide anything in the song, despite both fans and detractors alike claiming that "Stairway" was an ode to "My Sweet Satan" and the number of the beast, 666.
Before we name our number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions!
"Empty Spaces", Pink Floyd
If You Isolate the Left Channel, You'll Hear a Secret Message!
"Hotel California", Eagles
Is There a Secret Satanic Message in This Hotel?
"Stormbringer", Deep Purple
David Coverdale Quoting the Exorcist
"Hate Yer State", Choking Victim
Intentional Backmasking with Some Very Bad Language
"You Could Feel the Sky", Boards of Canada
A Different Kind of God
#1: Various
Top 10 Creepiest Hidden Messages in Songs
The Beatles
It's known as the "Paul is Dead" theory: the urban legend that Beatles bassist Paul McCartney is actually long gone, and was replaced in the band with a double. Proponents claim that The Beatles hid subliminal and backmasked messages in their songs as proof, with the conspiracy spanning across multiple Beatles LPs. There's a wealth of takes on this urban legend, but many fans point to "Strawberry Fields Forever" containing a line where John Lennon supposedly says "I buried Paul." Others point to "I'm So Tired" as being an ode to how much Lennon missed McCartney. The biggie, however, is probably "Revolution #9," an experimental track from the White album that, when played backwards, is supposed to say, "turn me on, dead man." Freaky stuff.
